Louvre vs Labour Unions

The French government wants you to be able to pop into the Louvre on a Tuesday if you happen to so choose.

Three French museums are slotted for 7-days-a-week openings – the Palace of Versailles, and the Musée d’Orsay in addition to the Louvre. Currently each has one day a week off (Monday for Versailles and d’Orsay, and Tuesday for the Louvre). Unions aren’t taking too kindly to this. The draft 2015 budget shows that it would be economically beneficial to add a day of visiting (income will outweigh cost), however unions are worried about increased after-hours work being required for maintenance. There is also concern over losing hefty fees paid by third parties to use the museums (movie filming previously was scheduled for the “day off”).

The management team at the Louvre said it will be in talks with the union to make sure any measures taken are in the interests of the public and the staff. CGT is the labour union that represents most of the museum employees – they have come out publicly against the concept. It is yet to be seen whether this will result in a labour dispute – over the next year we’ll see what they do with this.